In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

People the world over think of God like genie in a bottle. Rub him just the right way and get your magic wishes. Pray the right way. Do the right actions. Or believe the right things and you can get goodies from God. This is patently false.

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let’s be honest. According to our world God is dumb. This attitude takes various forms from the extreme atheism that has become so common that hates all religion and ridicules it as nothing but faerie tales and lies, to the spirituality that thinks there is some kind of greater power out there but we each get to define what that power is like. And guess what, when you listen to such spiritual people strangely their “deity” looks a lot like themselves. And it all comes back to this: the world says God is dumb. But let’s be clear by what I mean: the world thinks the God of the Bible, the God of the cross is moronic.

For only the God of the Bible hides Himself behind a sign-post on which is hung that which is killing you (Numbers 21:9). Like Moses in the wilderness standing up on a pole a fiery bronze snake, the very thing killing them, so our God has us look to a cross on which is hung our sin. The Israelites looked at the snake with faith in God’s promise that He would save them by this (Numbers 21:8). So we foolish Christians cling to God’s promise that when we look in faith on the cross of Christ, on which is hung all our sin in His flesh, it is the sign, the power, the wisdom of God for our salvation (1 Corinthians 1:22-25). God hides Himself behind this cross. He buries Himself in this promise (1 Corinthians 1:18). To be found only by those who will look where He has hidden Himself in order that there and only there He may be found (Isaiah 55:6-11; Romans 8:20-21).